Commission talks back to critics

They were "pioneers in the use of petitions and pamphleteering to political ends," Wikipedia says of the Levellers, adding that in 1600s England the name was "a term of abuse for rural rebels."

Edward F. Maroney

EDWARD F. MARONEY PHOTO

QUITE A GAP BETWEEN THEM – Paul Niedzwiecki, executive director of the Cape Cod Commission, listens Feb. 26 as a persistent critic of the agency, Ron Beaty, urges the Assembly of Delegates to level-fund the organization next fiscal year.

Niedzwiecki points to the record

They were “pioneers in the use of petitions and pamphleteering to political ends,” Wikipedia says of the Levellers, adding that in 1600s England the name was “a term of abuse for rural rebels.”

This week at a meeting of an Assembly of Delegates committee to review the Cape Cod Commission’s budget, the West Barnstable man some consider a rural rebel of sorts asked leave to speak. He stood above the seated delegates and the Commission’s executive director, Paul Niedzwiecki, and reiterated his message that the Commission has not lived up to expectations and, short of abolition, should be level-funded in the fiscal year beginning July 1.

As he had earlier the week before in front of the Mashpee Board of Selectmen, one of whom had gone on record calling for his town to exit the Commission, Niedzwiecki explained his agency’s funding history.

The annual 2½ percent increase allowed “was fixed 23 years ago” at the Commission’s creation, he said. It was understood that the agency did not have the towns’ ability to factor in new growth to keep pace with rising costs.

Even so, he told the delegates Feb. 26, the average household in Mashpee paid $14 a year as its share of the Commission’s cost – and this year pays $18.

“We have to bring in more grant money every year just to stay even,” Niedzwiecki said.

He said there are “fewer FTEs [full-time equivalent positions] than when I started seven years ago. There have been new positions, but we have let other positions go.”

At the Mashpee meeting on Feb. 24, Niedzwiecki combined a report on the regional water quality plan update with a direct response to criticism by Selectman Thomas O’Hara growing out of a Commission review of a proposed assisted living facility. O’Hara, who served on the town’s planning board, was troubled by the mitigation funds required of the developer.

But those funds, Niedzwiecki said, do not go to the Commission but to the town itself.

The executive director said he recognized that things have changed over the two-plus decades of the Commission’s existence, including the capacity of towns to review developments.

“We have worked to shift that burden,” he said. “Less than 10 percent of staff at the Commission is in the regulatory process.” He cited the agency’s work to secure solid waste disposal options for Cape towns and the upcoming joint flyover to replenish the data banks of all communities save one.

Referring to “some criticism from a resident of West Barnstable,” Niedzwiecki cited Beaty’s effort to have all Cape towns vote on withdrawing from the Commission [a petition to put the question on the ballot in Barnstable is scheduled for a public hearing by the Town Council on March 20]. “If you read his comments,” he said, “it’s hard to find any factual.”

In the time he’s been at the Commission, Niedzwiecki said, 55 Developments of Regional Impact have been reviewed and only two denied. Rather than using withdrawal petitions to force change, he said, critics should jump in as the Commission begins another review of its Regional Policy Plan and help rewrite the rules.

“It is your Cape Cod Commission,” he said. “It’s open for you to help participate and craft [changes].”